


Day 3: Lies & Honesty

by CheshireJabberwock



Series: Oumota Week 2018 [3]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Oumota Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 09:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14668173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheshireJabberwock/pseuds/CheshireJabberwock
Summary: After viewing the Chapter 2 Flashback Light, Kaito finds Kokichi in the casino. For Oumota Week 2018.





	Day 3: Lies & Honesty

**Author's Note:**

> Sticking with the canon verse today! Quick refresher: After opening new areas and seeing the Ultimate Hunt Flashback Light in chapter 2, when the others begin to talk about working together to try and get out, Kokichi suggests they ask the mastermind how to escape. When the others protest that they’d agreed there was no mastermind, Kokichi allows that if they tried to find the mastermind, they’d just “repeat Kaede’s screwup.” 
> 
> Kaito tells him to stop messing around, Kokichi retorts that if the others keep talking about cooperating there will be painful retaliation, Kaito threatens to hit him, and Kokichi runs off without clarifying what he meant. In the following free time, Kaito is in front of the dorm looking for Kokichi, and Kokichi is in the casino hiding from Kaito.
> 
> This is a canon divergent scene where Kaito manages to find Kokichi.
> 
> Warnings: dark themes?? implied traumatic childhood?? a curse or two?? despite my best efforts, i don't think there's too much to warn for in this one lol

Day 3: Lies & Honesty

 

Kokichi settled in front of the casino’s racing game. The others didn’t strike him as being in the mood to play around after the events of this morning, so hopefully he wouldn’t be disturbed. He needed some time to de-stress if he wanted to keep his mind honed enough to destroy this shitty – _win_ this _great_ game.

_(This game is so much fun, this game is so interesting, this game isn’t frustrating or frightening or upsetting, he’s so happy to be here. He is evil and this is fun and this is fine.)_

He wondered how many of the others would figure out what he’d meant. Or if any of them would. They’d need to have the empathy to not just realize, but _care_ that Kokichi’s behavior had a deeper meaning, and the intelligence to puzzle out what it was. He’d been a little more obfuscating than he’d have preferred, since most of the others were either too apathetic or too stupid, but that was as easy as he dared go on them when the mastermind was still hidden among them and listening.

But he’d given them enough pieces to figure out a smart course of action to guarantee the group’s survival.

Mention the mastermind, push them to reexamine their _stupid_ conclusion that just because the mastermind hadn’t killed Amami-chan didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

(And frankly, Kokichi still had his doubts that the mastermind hadn’t been involved with Amami-chan’s death; just because he didn’t know how they could have been didn’t mean he should take it off the table as a possibility.)

Suggest that cornering the mastermind was the most surefire way to escape.

Remind them that obvious cooperation would just lead to Akamatsu-chan’s fate.

Those were the easiest hints. The ones Kokichi felt were low-risk enough to say out loud, if only in an antagonistic way.

Finally, the hard hint, the one they’d need both empathy and intelligence to parse out: cooperation was punished.

If Monokuma and the mastermind punished cooperation, that meant they didn’t want them to cooperate.

If Monokuma and the mastermind didn’t want them to cooperate, then _cooperation was bad for Monokuma and the mastermind._

_Obvious_ cooperation would lead to Akamatsu-chan’s fate. So, they needed to find subtler ways to pool their resources without tipping off the mastermind. Appear not to get along, while staying focused on their common goal. Remain staunchly against the killing game, and determined to escape it.

If everyone’s hearts were cooperating, it shouldn’t matter what words came out of their mouths. You didn’t need to like or trust your comrades to know who the enemy was and what they wanted.

Kokichi hoped the mastermind had bought into his lie that he was against working together, but at the same time, hoped the others – even just one other person! – realized they needed to work together without _appearing_ to do so. If they could be smart about it, maybe no one else would have to die.

Not that Kokichi was going to get his hopes up. If his friends were here, they’d have picked up on those clues easily. They knew Kokichi well enough to understand when he was hinting at something, and were smart enough to figure out what he meant without needing to ask him directly. He was glad they weren’t, because he didn’t want them in this game, but… he’d be able to believe he had at least a chance at surviving if they were.

But they weren’t. Kokichi was stuck in this killing game with strangers. People he didn’t know and couldn’t trust.

He was going to die. Most of them were. The only question was whether or not he could drag the monster behind all this down with them. That was the most realistic goal to set his sights on.

_(Please, no, he didn’t want to die, he **didn’t want to die** –_

_Accept it. Accept it. **Accept it.** If he couldn’t, he’d never be able to destroy this shitty killing game.)_

Hopefully his friends were at least safe from the Ultimate Hunt. Kokichi wished he could remember more about how he’d been kidnapped and brought here. It just made him even more suspicious – what was there to gain from tampering with their memories like this?

Probably, to inflict even more despair.

Kokichi shoved that train of thought off the rails. It was dangerous to brood over that too much. He was barely holding on by a thread as it was.

_(Liar.)_

He’d have to put more thought into it. Eventually. The mastermind’s and Monokuma’s motives, and the rationale behind their actions, were important. But Kokichi _really_ didn’t want to think about it.

Isolating himself and alienating the others had its disadvantages; the longer he did, the more he risked the stress and anxiety and fear overwhelming him. Humans were social animals. Without his social circle for support, being trapped in a killing game and forced to be highly suspicious and on guard at all times would drive him insane.

_(Being all alone really… sucks.)_

“ _THERE_ you are, Ouma!”

It took every ounce of willpower and rigid self-control Kokichi had not to physically flinch. He’d been so lost in thought, he hadn’t heard Momota-chan storming down the stairs from the casino lobby.

Kokichi swiftly rose from the game and put the machine between him and Momota-chan, who still looked pretty incensed.

“Oh, hey, Momota-chan,” he said, tucking his hands behind his head and grinning like nothing was wrong.

Hmmm, what to do about this… maybe it would be best to just let Momota-chan hit him? Get the catharsis of feeling like he’d won. “Wow, you must really like me if you spent allllllll that time and effort tracking me down! _Nishishi~_!”

To Kokichi’s surprise, Momota-chan didn’t bellow like the big dumb bull Kokichi thought he was. Instead, he glowered for a second… and then sighed, scratching the back of his head.

“Why d’you gotta be like that, man?” the astronaut asked, sounding more disappointed than anything else. “Talking like that about Akamatsu, trying to drive us all apart and scare us, always messing around… and then running away like a coward.”

Of course an idiot like Momota-chan had missed the point of what Kokichi was doing. But… that was the emotional insight Kokichi had been looking for, at least. Being empathetic enough to consider that Kokichi had a reason, wonder what it was, and care enough to ask. Now if only he’d inject that passionate compassion into someone smart, like Saihara-chan.

Well. He shouldn’t give the idiot too much credit. He hadn’t proven anything yet. And he could always be the mastermind. Acting like an idiot was the best way for the mastermind to fly under the radar.

If you didn’t want the audience to know you were the ringmaster, pretend to be a clown.

“If Amami-chan or Akamatsu-chan had been more cowardly, they’d still be alive right now,” Kokichi retorted with a sinister sneer. _C’mon, hit me already. And then go away._ “Being brave in a killing game is just gonna lower your chances of survival!”

Momota-chan’s head snapped back up, eyes blazing. “You’re so full of shit!” he snarled, storming closer and grabbing Kokichi by the scarf. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He raised a fist, drawing his shoulder back as he got ready to hit Kokichi.

_Finally._ Man, Momota-chan’s buttons were so easy to push. Kokichi braced himself for impact, ready to get this over with.

But Momota-chan didn’t swing. They just stood like that, staring at each other, for a long, uncomfortable minute.

“You’re not even gonna _try_ to defend yourself?” Momota-chan finally demanded, disgusted.

“Nope,” Kokichi confirmed, almost buzzing with impatience.

Momota-chan gave a dissatisfied grunt. He let go of Kokichi and lowered his fist. “I don’t understand you at all.” He shook his head. “You don’t _really_ think this killing game is fun, _no one_ could think that. But you still just lie and laugh at us! Two of our friends are dead, how can you mess around at a time like this?”

Jeez, Momota-chan was staring at him so _seriously_. He didn’t actually expect Kokichi to give a sincere response, did he?

Well, maybe he would. As a prize to Momota-chan for being such a compassionate guy. It wasn’t like any of the others had shown any inclination to care _why_ Kokichi did what he did. And that… hurt, that most of them were so willing to believe that Kokichi was just being an asshole without rhyme or reason, that his behavior wasn’t worth investigating, that they brushed him off as being only a liar.

And deep down… he was kind of happy that Momota-chan _did_ care, that he believed in Kokichi enough to think – no, to _take for granted_ that there _was_ a reason.

Kokichi couldn’t trust him. Couldn’t risk that the mastermind was watching somehow, or that Momota-chan _was_ the mastermind. So he couldn’t be too sincere.

But a little. Just a little.

It was worth it to see what Momota-chan would make of it, wasn’t it?

“I’m the supreme leader of an evil secret organization, remember?” Kokichi asked, laughing as he tucked his arms behind his head again. “I’m used to it.”

Used to friends dying, used to people being cruel and two-faced and manipulative, used to never being safe, used to a world where trust was a luxury he couldn’t afford for anyone but his closest companions.

Not that Momota-chan would realize that’s how he meant it.

Or… would he? That look on the astronaut’s face…

Aw, man. Kokichi had underestimated him. Momota-chan’s expression was a slow-motion evolution of dawning, horrified understanding. He’d probably read _too much_ into those four little words. Jeez, what an annoying guy.

_(Thank you, Momota-chan, for believing in me.)_

Time to go.

Kokichi took off at top speed, fingers flicking Momota-chan’s jacket as he passed with a cheery, “Tag, you’re it!”

He’d darted up the stairs and made it to the door before he heard an outraged, “OUMA! GET _BACK HERE!_ ”

Cackling with glee, Kokichi made his escape.

**Author's Note:**

> There was supposed to be sex in this, but it just didn’t work with where the scene ended up going. :/


End file.
